News Media Told Not To Interview 'Terrorist Groups

PARIS (Fijilive/Pacific Media Watch): Reporters Without
Borders voiced concern today at the warning not to carry
interviews with "terrorists groups" which President Gloria
Arroyo issued to the news media on 5 March, a few days after
the army called for a law that would sanction media that do
this.

A ban on interviewing rebel groups is also included
in an anti-terrorism bill currently before congress.

These
measures will have the effect of imposing "censorship" and
"self-censorship" on the Philippine media, the press freedom
organization said. "We are aware of the need to combat
terrorist organizations, but we condemn the fact the media
could be exposed to sanctions for just doing their job of
disseminating the news," the organization said in a letter
to President Arroyo.

Agence France-Presse quoted
presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye as saying the measure
would be applied "on a case by case basis, depending on the
interview's content." He did not specify what sanctions
would be used, but the media could risk having their
licences withdrawn.

Bunye also pointed out that a law
banning the dissemination of calls for the "government's
overthrow" is already in force in the Philippines.

The
warning has come at a time when the army is stepping up its
offensive against armed bands and terrorists groups,
especially Abu Sayyaf - which is accused by the Philippine
and US authorities of links with the nebulous Al-Qaeda - and
the communist New People's Army. There are also separatist
movements - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro
National Liberation Front - on the southern island of
Mindanao.

The term "terrorist group" is very vague.
Reporters Without Borders believes that it should be up to
the news media themselves, and not any other body, to decide
who they interview.

Abu Sulaiman, the spokesman of the
Islamist group Abu Sayyaf, last month claimed responsibility
on the air for bombings on 14 February that killed 12 people
and wounded about 100 others in Manila and two southern
towns. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
(NUJP) said in a release: "Giving access to Abu Sulaiman's
claim the of responsibility for the Valentine's Day blasts
was not a crime. Exploding bombs is a crime. Airing a claim
of responsibility, on the other hand, served the public's
interest to know of details behind the event."

The NUJP
has condemned the new measure, describing it as a
"restriction on press freedom" that will result in practice
in journalists being kept out of the conflict
zones.

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an
independent, non-profit, non-government organisation
comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media
workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics,
accountability, censorship, media freedom and media
ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996,
it has links with the Journalism Program at the University
of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney,
Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the
Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ),
Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and
Community Communications Online (c2o).

Trump merely pulled the plug, not only on the so-called peace process, two-state solution, ‘land-for-peace formula’ but also all the other tired clichés that have been long dead and decomposing. More>>

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has denounced North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test. The test, which took place this morning, is North Korea’s third test flight of an inter-continental ballistic missile. More>>

ALSO:

At 75, Mnangagwa is not exactly what you’d call a new broom. As many observers have pointed out, his track record has been one of unswerving dedication to Mugabe ever since the days of anti-colonial insurgency... To these guys, things had to change in Zimbabwe, so that things could remain the same. More>>